


the boy in the park

by orphan_account



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Ambiguous/Open Ending, M/M, Non-Linear Narrative, Platonic Relationships, idk - Freeform, jaemin says i love you like once, maybe jaemin is an alien?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-21
Updated: 2020-09-21
Packaged: 2021-03-08 00:55:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,947
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26577157
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: there's a boy in the park. jeno doesn't understand him, but that's alright.
Relationships: Lee Jeno/Na Jaemin
Kudos: 7





	the boy in the park

**Author's Note:**

> if u know whats going on please tell me  
> i just wanted to try sumn so here we are

_Jeno is flying. No, not flying. He's walking on air. The clouds feels like jelly, but it's solid enough to walk on. He looks down, his shirt is gold, bright, extremely bright gold. It's blinding. Then he falls. But he doesn't._

_He's in a forest. Everything is bright green. There's something in front of him. It's a person. But it's not. The thing is tall, too tall, and too skinny._

_"Why are you blue?" Jeno asks._

_The thing smiles, at least, Jeno thinks it does. It shows something that looks like teeth, gleaming white teeth, unnatural in its brightness. The smile feels like it goes to forever._

_"What else am I supposed to be?" The thing speaks. But it doesn't. Jeno can feel the voice invading, taking over his brain. The thing moves. But it doesn't. It changes. slowly, so so slowly. Until Jeno seems to be looking at a mirror. The thing in front of him_ is _him. Or is he it? He moves a hand and the thing is still._

_It was still smiling. But it was Jeno's smile. A golden shirt, and golden trousers. Dark hair, unwashed._

_"You ask too many questions." it said. But it was Jeno's voice._

_The scene morphs and he's sitting in a room. A dark room made of cobblestone. Jaemin is in front of him, laughing hysterically. But he has six eyes. Jeno doesn't ask. Only bad things will happen._

_"Jeno! Jeno They'll catch you!" Jaemin shrieks, and he keeps on laughing,_

_Everything vanishes again. Jeno is holding a strawberry ice cream cone, and he can see something hanging from a tree in the park._

13

"Hey Nono?" Jeno turns to Jaemin, who's sitting beside him, "I love you."

"I know." Jeno smiles, and Jaemin lies down in his lap. Jaemin had dyed his hair pink last week, and Jeno thinks he looks beautiful. "Tell me a story, Jae."

Jaemin smiles up at him and takes a breath, "Alright."

"There was a little girl, and one day, she was running, running in the middle of the road. There was nothing, as far as she could see. Except, there was a bench, and on the bench was an old man, a man that looked so old, that maybe, he wasn't even supposed to be there.

" _Little girl_ , the old man said, _little girl where are you going?_

_"_ The girl stopped and stood in front of the old man, _I don't know sir, I don't know where I'm going._

"The old man smiled, and looked straight at the girl, _little girl, maybe you're not running to somehwere,_ the old man said, _maybe you're running from something._ "

When Jaemin finishes, Jeno runs his hand throught the other's hair.

"Where'd that story come from?"

"Elsewhere." Jaemin pauses, "I think."

Jeno nods. He hardly ever understands Jaemin, but he likes it that way.

9

Jaemin introduced him to Renjun - or Injunnie - shortly after they had met. Renjun never joins them, except that today Jaemin had wanted them to spend time together, alone.

("I want my besties to be besties!" Jaemin had exclaimed.

"Did you get that from Star vs the Forces of Evil?" Renjun rolls his eyes and Jaemin pouts.)

They're walking to the Cold Spot, their local ice cream shop.

When they get there, Jeno orders a strawberry sundae and Renjun gets an oreo cone with extra gummy bears. They sit at one of the booths by the window, across from each other. Neither of them speak for a while, both trying to think of polite conversation starters.

"Did Jaemin know your name when you met?" Jeno asks. Jaemin is neutral territory, he doesn't want to offend the boy in front of him.

Renjun smiles, "We couldn't even speak when we met."

They spend the rest of the afternoon there, Renjun talks about the plants he's raising and about how much he likes to draw while Jeno tells him stories about his sister and her friends. They laugh a lot in between spoonfuls of ice cream. In his mind, Renjun will forever be the boy that eats gummy bears with oreo ice cream.

8

Jeno, eight, is walking home from the ice cream parlor when he sees something hanging from a tree in the park. He takes a detour - his mom won't notice five more minutes - to the park. Upon closer inspection, there's a boy, his age, hanging upside down by his legs from a tree branch.

"Your brain's gonna fall. My sister said so." Jeno says, in lieu of a greeting.

"That's the plan, isn't it? Maybe I want my brain to fall out, Jeno."

Jeno takes a step back, "Have we met?"

"Probably." the boy laughs, his smile is wide, showing off bright teeth. It's almost unnatural. "You can call me Jaemin. Or Nana. Or Jae. Nevermind, only Injun can call me Nana. You can call me Jae, no-one calls me that yet." Jeno decides that Jaemin talks a lot.

Jaemin grabs onto the tree branch, pulling himself up and jumping down on the other side. He faces Jeno and smiles again.

"Is that ice cream?" Jaemin asks, pointing to the cone in Jeno's hand. Jeno nods, handing it to the other boy. Jaemin takes a lick, and instantly looks like he wants to vomit and hands the cone back to Jeno. He assumes Jaemin doesn't like strawberry.

10

The two of them only meet in the park; Jaemin is homeschooled and Jeno can't bring friends to his house. It's been two years, and every other Saturday afternoon is spent here. Today, Jeno decided to bring his Pokemon cards. It took hours of begging his mom to be able to buy the cards he has now. He walks to Jaemin, sitting by a tree, and it only takes the other boy half an hour to learn the rules of Pokémon.

"Jeno! That isn't even what dragons look like!" Jaemin whines.

Jeno laughs, "How would you know what dragons look like?"

"There used to be lots and lots and lots of dragons! They would fly around like birds all over the skies!" Jaemin makes a large gesture with his arms, as if he's trying to embrace the sky. "I met a dragon once! He was all big and scaly. He told me about this lady he met that only wore gold. The dragon said the lady could fly, but really she could just walk on clouds!" Jeno scoffs, and after some convincing he finally gets Jaemin to keep playing.

Jaemin beats him every time.

14

Earlier, when he and Jaemin had met, he handed Jeno a folded piece of paper. _It's a story I wrote, I thought you'd like it,_ he said _But you can only open it when you're alone._ They had played cards for the rest of the afternoon, Jaemin winning every round. Once Jeno gets home, he runs to his room. and unfolds the paper. The writing is neat, straight lines and exact spacing, just like Jaemin. The story is about the sun and moon, it goes like this:

_the sun and moon were once lovers_

_they loved feircely, unconditionally_

_every embrace, every touch, every kiss_

_was filled with limitless energy_

_to each other, they made promises_

_promises of infinite eternities_

_but one day, the moon realized,_

_the sun kept taking, and taking, and taking_

_until the moon was left with nothing_

_doomed to depending on the light of the sun_

_with one last kiss, the moon ran,_

_the sun chased her into eternity_

_when the skies fall and the oceans rise,_

_the sun will catch the moon_

_and our world will be destroyed_

Two weeks later, Jeno rushes to the park and tackles Jaemin to the ground.

"You prick! That story made me cry!"

Jaemin laughs, squishing Jeno's cheeks, "I'm sorryyyy Nono! It wasn't supposed to."

Jaemin keeps laughing.

12

They're twelve, in the park and Jaemin is in another world, lying on his stomach and watching a trail of ants. Jeno is bored. Extremely bored. He knows theres a million and one things he could do, but he doesn't want to do any of those things. He crosses his legs and leans back against a tree. He's going to get dirt in his hair, but it's alright.

"Jae?" The boy hums in acknowledgement, "would you rather know when you die or how you die?"

Jaemin hums, "When."

"Really? But if you knew how you'd die, you could prevent it."

"Not really. They'll always catch up to you." Jaemin turns to him, leaning his head on his arms. "And I already know how I'll die."

Jeno tilts his head in confusion and Jaemin laughs.

"I'm going to die far away from here and it's going to be gruesome. You wouldn't even know when I'm gone."

Jeno nods, pretending to understand. They stay at the park for another hour, and Jeno talks about his classes, things about genetics or something. He's not too sure what the teacher was saying.

15

Jaemin's fifteenth birthday was yesterday, and Jeno gave made him a flower crown. Jaemin had smiled so widely, the genuine kind, reaching his eyes. Right now though, the flower crown is on Jeno while Jaemin chases a butterfly. The butterfly doesn't seem to realize it can fly higher and out of the boy's reach and keeps flying in low, wide circles. Maybe it's teasing him. Jeno watches, and the other boy looks crazy, chasing something so small that he could never catch.

"You're insane, Jae!" Jeno calls out to him.

Jaemin stops for a moment to laugh, "As if you're not!" Jeno furrows his eyebrows.

"I'm not insane, you are!"

Jaemin laughs again, he walks to Jeno and sits on his lap. Jeno stays still. This has never happened and he's not sure what to do. _Oh God, what if he kisses me?_ he thinks vaguely.

"Jeno, claiming sanity is the subtlest form of self-induced torture." Jaemin whispers into his ear. Jaemin is chasing the butterfly again, when Jeno registers what he just said.

"That doesn't even make sense!"

Jaemin finally catches the butterfly, he clasps it between both hands and walks to where Jeno is sitting. He opens his palms slightly, showing the older boy a small butterfly thrashing inside. he opens his hands and lets the butterfly go free.

"Not everything has to make sense Nono."

11

Jeno can hear a tapping at his window, and he's scared. He turns away from the window, and the tapping continues.

"Nono!" there's someone outside, and it just whispered Jeno's name. He sits up, and looks to the window. Jaemin ison the other side, waving when he sees Jeno has sat up. He walks to the window and opens it.

"Jae? What are you doing here?" he whispers. The entire house is asleep, but he doesn't want to risk it.

Jaemin smiles, "I wanted to see you. Duh." He says it like its the most obvious thing in the world. "Can I stay with you?"

"You have to be gone by the morning though." Jaemin nods, and comes into the room. After some shuffling around, they manage to fit into Jeno's tiny bed, limbs tangled around each other. Jaemin kisses him on the nose.

"Don't go out at night, Nono. There are things out there."

"What type of things?"

"Things you won't like. If you go out at night, make sure I'm with you, then the things won't get you." Jaemin whispers and Jeno can feel shivers go up his spine. They joke around for a bit more but Jeno can feel his eyelids getting heavy.

"Dream well, Nono." he hears Jaemin whisper before he falls asleep.

_Jeno is flying._


End file.
